Children has been the beneficiaries of the government’s programmes (Photo: Buenos Aires city government)
‘The State of Social Safety Nets’, a new report by the World Bank, has lauded Argentina’s increased social spending, highlighting that the country now invests the most in relation to GDP in the world.
Between 2000 and 2010 the country went from spending 0.25% of its GDP on social security to 1.86%, multiplying the budget more than eight-fold, and putting the country above the ranking of many more developed countries, which spend on average 1.6% of their budgets on welfare programmes.
The report went on to list social programmes such as Asignación Universal por Hijo, a child allowance for low-income families, and school canteens with free meals as two of the programmes that had been particularly successful in helping the country’s most vulnerable. The policies reach 3.5 million and 3 million beneficiaries respectively.
Arup Banerji, the director of Social and Labour Protection at the World Bank, said: “There is growing evidence that indicates that social safety nets are one of the most cost-effective ways for countries to end extreme poverty and promote shared prosperity.”
The report comes in the same week that the government announced increases of up to 40% in social programmes, changes that are expected to have a 2.5% effect on taxes.
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